Tuesday, March 30, 1999 Published at 22:27 GMT 23:27 UKUKUK: Milosevic offer not enoughThe humanitarian crisis is worseningThe UK Government has joined its Nato allies in rejecting Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's conditional proposal for an end to the conflict.

Speaking after efforts by Russian leaders to secure an end to the bombing produced movement from the Serbs, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that Mr Milosevic's proposals fell far short of what Nato wanted to see.

In a statement issued by Yugoslav state television, Mr Milosevic said he was ready to withdraw some forces from war-torn Kosovo if Nato halts air strikes.

Defence Secretary George Robertson, speaking as his department confirmed that Harriers involved in Tuesday's raids had returned safely, called the proposal neither "a sensible nor a serious offer".

"He is not saying he'll stop the killing," he told BBC News. "He is not saying he will bring to troops back to where they were last October.

"I think it is indication that what is involved here is a bit of game - Milosevic making what looks like an offer on the face of it but which does not involve a cease-fire."

PM backs Schröder

Tony Blair's official spokesman said that the Prime Minister backed German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

"There is no question of halting the air strikes while Milosevic's forces are still out there carrying out their heaviest programme of ethnic cleansing," he said.

Allies throughout Nato have also dismissed the offer, including the US and Germany.

Hague attack

The UK is leading international efforts to aid refugees and an RAF plane carrying 42 tonnes of blankets and other supplies left for the region on Tuesday.

Hague: "Too little, too late"

But putting fresh pressure on the cross-party support for the Nato action, Conservative leader William Hague
accused the Government of doing "too little too late" to help the refugees.

In a statement, Mr Hague said: "Whole villages have been uprooted, families with young children find themselves thrown out on to exposed roads, and elderly people are facing night after night out in the cold.

"Nato must have foreseen this kind of reaction by Milosevic to their present military action and must have made contingency plans.